


The Midnight Rider

by hit_the_books



Series: SPN Poly Bingo 2017 [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Denial of Feelings, It's For a Case, M/M, Multi, Pre-Series, Sirens, Stripper John Winchester, Strippers & Strip Clubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 21:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11586888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hit_the_books/pseuds/hit_the_books
Summary: John once went out to Arizona to help Bobby and Rufus on a case. A case that never made it into any of their hunting journals.





	The Midnight Rider

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for SPN Poly Bingo and the square: Bobby John Rufus.

There a handful of cases that never made it into John Winchester’s journal. That Bobby never talked about with Dean and Sam. Or Rufus wouldn’t bring up while halfway through a bottle of Johnnie Walker. Sure it would have helped that one time that Dean and Sam had to take on a siren.

Helped when the two brothers were busy killing each other. But the shame was too great for even Bobby to explain everything.

The shame for the three men never came from the fact that they had had to do what they had done, but that they had enjoyed it. Enjoyed being together, _together_ for a case.

A siren was killing women in an Arizonian town. Bobby and Rufus were working it together, but they realized they needed someone else to help them. After dropping his boys off at Pastor Jim’s, John joined Bobby and Rufus over in Arizona.

The motel was nondescript, family owned. Perfect for hunters who didn’t want any questions asked.

“You want me to what?!” John shouted, disbelief making his chest tight and fear claw at his heart. Bobby and Rufus’s twin bed room was covered in books and pizza boxes.

“We need you to pretend that you’re… _with us,_ and work at Lola’s Fancies, so we can figure out which of the other strippers is the damn siren.” Bobby scratched at his beard.

“But why do we have to pretend that we’re in a relationship?” John asked in a hushed voice. He didn’t understand what the hell was going on.

Rufus looked up from the pile of handwritten notes he’d been digging through. “Because the only way this idiot,” Rufus pointed at Bobby, “could get you a job at the strip club was by pretending to the owner, Lola McKenzie, that he was in a polyamorous ‘triad’, I believe the term was, with me and you.”

John looked between the two older men, mouth open in surprise.

“I know, it’s not the, uh, most manageable of covers… but three more women died last week.” Bobby gave John a hopeful look.

“Why does Lola McKenzie care that three guys are together?”

“It’s best not to ask such questions,” Rufus grumbled.

***

Putting together a full striptease routine, with costume, and the right music—John had hardly danced while Mary was alive. In the company of Rufus and Bobby, John developed a cowboy persona who stripped to “Night Moves” for his routine.

It had taken days to become what they needed, and John couldn’t remember the last time he felt like anyone had cared for him this much. Rufus and Bobby would take turns cooking (abandoning takeout now that the three of them were there), bickering always, but it was never mean. And Bobby would massage John’s limbs and back whenever training pushed John a touch too far.

Rufus sourced John’s outfit for the striptease and helped him with his hair.

Another woman died, and they decided they had to be ready to go.

John Winchester was… The Midnight Rider.

***

“So, this is John,” purred Lola McKenzie. She had bright red hair piled high on her head in an impressive beehive. Her lips were the shade of ripe plums, and she wore a dozen gold rings across her hands. “Or should I say: The Midnight Rider. Well, c’mon boy, strip for me.”

The strip club was all dark wood and low lights, audience cast into near darkness while the stage was well lit. A bar lined one wall.

Rufus and Bobby were there, at the bar, while John danced and stripped. Shirt, leathers, boots, and hat slowly eased from his body as he gyrated and danced to the music. Once he was down to a G-string, Lola was clapping and grinning like she’d eat John right up.

Other male strippers who worked for Lola had drifted into the show while John performed. And once John was with Rufus and Bobby in a dressing room, Bobby and Rufus said they had a feeling who the siren might be.

Before they went to kill the monster, Bobby and Rufus helped John change and dress, touches tender. Rufus and Bobby made sure that John was fine before they set out. Because it wasn’t one siren.

It was two.

***

The sirens couldn’t trick Rufus, John and Bobby. Couldn’t shake the bonds that had formed from working hard together to make “Night Moves” work.

Once the sirens were dead and they’d checked out from their motel, John felt a pang of regret as he said “bye” to the two men. On the road to Pastor Jim’s, he wondered if it would ever be possible to have something like that permanently, because it had felt so right.

So right that the anguish at believing he could not have it, made him sure that he needed to bury that side of himself. Forever. Dean and Sam would never know.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at [dreamsfromthebunker](https://dreamsfromthebunker.tumblr.com/).


End file.
